Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari has affirmed that the statements made on Syria last Monday by James Jeffrey, an employee at the U.S Department of State, are irresponsible and misleading and they are just an attempt to cover the U.S. crimes and violations against the sovereignty, independence and safety of the Syrian territories and against the security, peace and prosperity of the Syrian people, saying that Syria demands that the U.S. Government immediately and unconditionally lift all the unilateral coercive economic measures imposed on it.

In a letter sent to the UN Secretary General and the President of the Security Council, al-Jaafari asserted that the statements made by Jeffry reflect the continuity of the policy of denial and stubbornness by a government which can’t be depended on in playing any humanitarian and international role in fighting the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Al-Jaafari said that since the year 1979, the U.S has been imposing a wide series of unilateral economic coercive measures on Syria, whose impact have been aggravating from nine years till today as the previous and the current U.S. administrations have issued eight executive orders on tightening the economic siege on the Syrian people and imposing new unprecedented punitive measures on the sectors of banking, energy, investment, import, export, communications and the air, sea and land transport with the aim of depriving the Syrians of their basic rights.

Al-Jaafari reviewed the most important direct and indirect impacts of those measures such as the decline in Syria’s ranking in the Human Development Index to the list of the least developed countries “Human Development Report 2016”, in addition to leaving dangerous repercussions even on the process of delivering humanitarian aid and undermining the ability of the Syrian people to meet their basic needs and affecting the ability of the Syrian Government to provide the basic needs of its citizens, particularly in the energy sector.

He added that in light of the global pandemic due to the outbreak of the coronavirus (covid-19), Syria is facing an additional pressure and new challenges in fighting this dangerous pandemic which imposes on the Syrian Government to provide the basic infrastructure and the necessary potentials for the health sector.

Al-Jaafari asserted that the hostile policies adopted by the U.S. government against the Syrian people can be only considered as a direct and flagrant violation of the UN Charter and of the principles of the international law and the international humanitarian law and the Security Council’s relevant violations, and despite of the dangerous threats imposed by this global pandemic, today the U.S. continues to impose unilateral coercive economic measures on Syria which proves that this government doesn’t care about the humanitarian considerations or the international calls.

Al-Jaafari said that Syria demands the U.S government to immediately and unconditionally lift all the unilateral coercive economic measures imposed on it, particularly on the sectors of banking, oil, energy and the air, sea and land transport in a way that would allow the free flow of materials and medical equipment in particular, and would enhance Syria’s ability to tackle this pandemic and to prevent its spread.

He added that Syria also calls for the withdrawal of the US occupation troops from all the Syrian territories, particularly the oil and gas fields and to allow the Syrian Government to regain its control over these areas and to start the reconstruction and to rehabilitate the oil and gas plants and to use their resources for the interest of the Syrian people exclusively.

Al-Jaafari stressed that the Syrian government preserves the right to hold the American government and its partners within the framework of the so-called “international coalition” legal, moral and financial responsibility for the destruction of the cities of Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, Ayn Al-Arab, Hajin and other areas in Syria, in addition to holding them responsible for targeting the Syrian Infrastructures, which led to their total or partial destruction, including roads, bridges, electric power stations, oil and gas wells, and supply routes.

Concluding the letter, al-Jaafari said ” The government of the Syrian Arab Republic affirms that it has mobilized all of its available human, medical and food resources to serve all the Syrians wherever they are in the face of this global pandemic, and it highly appreciates the stances and statements recently made by the UN Secretary General in which he called for putting an end to the unilateral coercive economic measures imposed on many of the world’s peoples including the Syrian people, and the Syrian Government affirms that any collective and international effort for curbing the spread of this dangerous pandemic can’t be accomplished in light of the continuity of the policy of imposing economic siege by some governments including the U.S on more than two billion people in our world.”